Just days removed from an overtime loss in Toronto in which the B's showed a solid effort but couldn't hold a lead, a Bruins fan could be forgiven for not feeling safe with the Bruins' 2-1 lead in the second period on Thursday. Even when the B's took a two-goal lead on Patrice Bergeron's 14th goal of the season, a victory seemed a long way away.
Yet it was then that the Bruins did what they've done so rarely this season — they kept the foot on the gas pedal, maintained a physical and aggressive style of play, kept the puck out of their own net and walked away with a dominant victory over a team that had gone 7-2-1 in its last 10 games.
"I think the whole team came to play tonight," Claude Julien told Naoko Funayama shortly after walking off the Wachovia Center ice. "They showed up, we battled, we stood up for ourselves, we did a lot of good things. Second effort was there. It was just one of those kind of games that you really enjoyed the way you won the game."
One Bruin who certainly enjoyed himself was Mark Stuart, who had so much fun fighting Philly's tough guy Daniel Carcillo in the first period that he double-dipped in the second, going toe-to-toe with Ian Laperriere. Stuart didn't necessarily win his fights by a unanimous decision, but he definitely didn't lose them, and he clearly set a tone for the team.
"One of our biggest challenges is that we’ve been a team that sleeps
until another team wakes us up," Blake Wheeler, who scored the first goal of the game, told The Boston Globe. "This year, teams have let us sleep.
Stuey took the bull by the horns and revved the team up."
Stuart said it's something that needs to happen more often.
"We need to play like that every night," Stuart told The Associated Press. "Guys were winning battles and it showed on the scoreboard. There aren't enough games left in the season for us to take any nights off. We have to do exactly what we did tonight. We have to play physical games."
Other players followed Stuart's lead, including Brad Marchand, who was playing in his first NHL game since mid-November. Marchand leveled Flyers forward and former UNH standout James van Riemsdyk into his own bench late in the first period. It was the hit of the night, and it came from a 21-year-old kid who is 5-foot-9, 183 pounds.
Equally as encouraging was the play in net from Tuukka Rask, who was making his first start since injuring his knee on March 2. Rask was nearly perfect, stopping 31 Flyer shots. None were prettier than the two on which he moved brilliantly from right to left, making nearly identical glove saves on 2-on-1 rushes in the first and third periods. Rask also stuffed Simon Gagne on a breakaway in the third period, and by the end of the night, the 23-year-old Finn stood alone as the league leader in goals-against average (2.11).
It was, in total, a complete showing by the Bruins that kept them within four points of the sixth seed in the East. Inspired by a pregame message delivered by Peter Chiarelli, the Bruins made the plays and got the bounces to go their way — a combination that has eluded them so many times this season.
"It all clicked for us tonight," Wheeler told NHL.com.
That's good news for the Bruins, and though it was just one game, the team at least offered a glimpse of how it plans to finish the year.
